Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the body of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) knowledge within the field of higher education institutions. The paper will review the initial phase of an implementation and highlight future challenges of applying the LSS method in a complex transactional environment. Design/methodology/approach – The observations presented in this paper originate from rolling out a large LSS implementation at a recently established university. The paper is supported with secondary data from literature. Findings – The implementation of LSS methodology at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has resulted in improvements in business processes and efficiency. This has been achieved through project execution and training programs. Approximately 350 staff members have completed awareness training, 50 yellow belts and 150 green belts have been trained, and the first round of seven black belts have completed training of which two have completed certification. Research limitations/implications – This paper is based on an empirical study of a single instance and the authors’ experiences as practitioners. Originality/value – This paper is the first description of what is believed to be one of the largest implementations of LSS in higher education.

Quantitative data are crucial in the assessment of research impact in the academic world. However, as a young university created in 2009, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) needs to aggregate bibliometrics from researchers coming from diverse origins, not necessarily with the proper affiliations. In this context, the University has launched an institutional repository in September 2012 with the objectives of creating a home for the intellectual outputs of KAUST researchers. Later, the university adopted the first mandated institutional open access policy in the Arab region, effective June 31, 2014. Several projects were then initiated in order to accurately identify the research being done by KAUST authors and bring it into the repository in accordance with the open access policy.Integration with ORCID has been a key element in this process and the best way to ensure data quality for researcher’s scientific contributions. It included the systematic inclusion and creation, if necessary, of ORCID identifiers in the existing repository system, an institutional membership in ORCID, and the creation of dedicated integration tools. In addition and in cooperation with the Office of Research Evaluation, the Library worked at implementing a Current Research Information System (CRIS) as a standardized common resource to monitor KAUST research outputs. We will present our findings about the CRIS implementation, the ORCID API, the repository statistics as well as our approach in conducting the assessment of research impact in terms of usage by the global research community.

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